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How to explicate a poem
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit Have you ever come away from a poem wondering why the speaker would write a poem about such a strange topic? Perhaps there's a deep allegory you're not picking up on! This article will show you how to begin approaching and deciphering a poem. Steps Start out with an explication chart, which is a T-chart with the left side labeled "Literally" (it denotes) and the right side labeled "Figuratively" (it connotes) Get your poem out. "A Noiseless Patient Spider" by Walt Whitman will be used for this article. Read the poem over, writing any words or phrases that stick out in the left-hand column. For "A Noiseless Patient Spider," the words I see are "noiseless," "patient," "spider," "promontory," "isolated," "vacant vast surrounding," "filament," "tirelessly," "soul," "surrounded," "detached," "measureless oceans of space," "musing, venturing, throwing," "seeking the spheres to connect," "bridge you need," "gossamer thread," "fling catch somewhere." Your total may be more or less, depending on your preference. Look at each of the words or phrases and decide what it means to you - your impression, what a word means, connotation. Virtually anything at all will do for a starting place. Look at "tips" to get some ideas for common meanings. Write what you think the meaning of each word or phrase on the right-hand column. For me, going in order of when they occur in the poem, I get "unheard," "waiting," "unwanted," "dangerous place," "bitter," "alone," "open space," "string or fiber," "onging," "self," "with someone," "unable to connect," "surrounded yet not alone," "trying," "trying to connect," "in need of a way," "breakable threads," "connect with something." Using your right-hand column as a guide, try and decide on what the speaker is trying to say. In the case of "The Noiseless Patient Spider," I get the idea that Whitman longs to connect with someone. Once you've decided on a theme, you can go away from your work feeling slightly smarter. Tips Generally in poetry, words such as "dark(ness)" or "black(ness)" of night connotate death or evil, while words such as the breaking of "dawn" and gathering "dusk" or dim "twilight" can connotate the beginning or ending of life. When looking at the time of day in a poem, it is common practice to think of "sunrise" as the beginning of life and "sunset" as the end of life. Nature reigns supreme in poetry most often. Do your research! If you see a reference to Eden, for example, use it! In Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay," the lines "So Eden sank to grief//So dawn goes down to day" can be taken as an allusion to the fall of humankind, and the spiritual "death" that the race suffered. Warnings Do not be afraid to sometimes take words at face value (denotation)! Sometimes, a word such as "connect" needs to be taken as the verb connect! See also * Poetry explication External links *Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Explicate a Poem. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-2.5 license. *"A Few Ways of Pulling Apart a Poem" by Reed Whittemore ---- Category:How-to articles Category:WikiHow articles Category:Imported, updated, or created in 2011